Maryland Sampson
is in her late 60’s. She retired from nursing at the Providence
hospital 10 years ago. She is short both in form and temper. Her thick-framed glasses accentuate her frustrations by sharp adjustments along the bridge of her nose. She lives on kombucha, salads, dried fruits, & oatmeal. Her wool skirts hang on for dear life to her dwindling form, which seems to further disappear under her homemade blouses. Her leggings are always nude in color.
On Sundays Maryland attends the mid-morning service at the Grace & Truth Pentecostal Church on 420 SE 22nd Ave, which is held in an old Victorian - the “Lord’s House” as the preacher likes to say. After the service she strolls over to the Lone Fir Cemetery to visit her husband Hubert’s grave and decompress with her daughter. As predicted, she finds her daughter Sandy sitting on her father’s headstone smoking a joint. Maryland takes a drag, and thanks the “Lord” for this gift from the Earth. She then looks down at Louis Sampson’s gravesite and says, “Don’t tell your brother, Louis.” Sandy giggles.
